"He looked like the kind of man I could fall in love with. Trouble is, he was standing next to the kind of man I'd like to make love to. " ~ Jarod Kintz
The Daughter
I watched in awe as Spencer secured the handcuffs onto my ex-boyfriend and dragged him violently to his feet without so much as a drop of sweat.
"What does it matter to you anyway, arsehole?" Darren spat blood onto the floor by Spencer's shoes and he frowned as though that was the worst thing Darren had done to him this evening.
"Because," Spencer said in a calm and partially bored tone.
"You attack my fiancé, you attack me, asshole." Darren scoffed and then began laughing as I watched Spencer shove him through my torn up living room.
"You're seriously with her?" Darren was laughing.
"Yes." Spencer said calmly.
"Wow Mel, you've really let yourself go." Darren laughed over his shoulder, Spencer continually shoving him towards my front door.
The door closed moments later and I was left standing there, gaping like a fish, completely baffled by what the Hell had just happened.
I looked down at my clothes, bloody and dishevelled but I couldn't let Spencer arrest that bastard and take him in for questioning on his own.
Darren was a master manipulator and an expert at defying the law and escaping whenever he was caught up in his own shit.
Knowing him, he'd find a way to hurt Spencer and escape. Even if he was in handcuffs.
Before I knew it I was running out my front door, frantically locking it behind me with shaking hands and running down the stairs rather than waiting on the elevator, knowing that they'd already be in there anyway.
By the time I got to the lobby, the elevator was just opening and Spencer was rolling his eyes at whatever insult Darren was blethering on about.
"Oh shut your face, Darren, we're not interested in any of the shit you have to say." I puffed, jangling my keys as I fell into step to walk on Darren's other side as we left the building.
"Shit!" He swore as he saw me. "Where the Hell did you come from? Fucking thin air?"
"I'm sure Doctor Reid has read you your rights by now, yes?" I said calmly.
"You have the right to remain silent, so I suggest you exercise that right and shut the Hell up." I opened the back door of my SUV and gestured for him to enter, his mouth gaping open at me as he tried to register what was going on.
"Are you sure you're okay to drive? You could be in shock." Spencer said to me quietly as Darren slid into the back seat in silent awe.
"I'll be fine. Just make sure he doesn't slide out of those cuffs and evaporate." I said as I climbed into the driver's seat.
Once inside I locked all of the doors and took a deep breath.
This was really happening. We had the bastard and this time, he wasn't going to slip away.
The Lover
On route to the offices, I texted Hotch and the rest of the team to let them know we'd arrested Darren.
I was pretty worried about Melanie, driving staring blankly ahead not replying to Darren's rude remarks every so often.
Truth be told I wasn't even listening to whatever it was he was mumbling.
Not only because I'd lost all interest but because I was coming down from a high; my heart was slowing and the adrenaline had now completely gone.
I didn't need to protect or defend Melanie anymore because Darren was securely in cuffs next to me, she was no longer in any danger. And also, I was intimidated.
This tall, British, dark-haired, thick-stubbled, blue-eyed, handsomely fit renegade was Melanie's ex-boyfriend.
And here I was; American, lanky, nerdish, dishevelled and uninspiring.
And, I was also Melanie's ex.
The only difference was; I would never in a million years lift my hand to Melanie, and I'm her ex-fiancé. Not just an ex-boyfriend.
Melanie's head was still dripping with blood, her cheek swollen and her bottom lip burst, her hair was sticking in every direction completely frizzy; she had blood on her blouse and her skirt was twisted. She was wearing flat shoes and no suit jacket anymore.
And yet she still looked perfect.
She was limping slightly as we made our way upstairs to the thirteenth floor.
"Oh my gosh!" Penelope's squeal was the thing to alert me to the fact that we'd arrived on the floor and the elevator doors were opening.
"Oh my god, are you okay? What the hell happened?!" She squeaked, taking Melanie into her arms.
"Bloody hell, this is your team? Jesus Christ Mel, no wonder it's taken you so long to catch me with this goon squad." Darren laughed and I shoved him out of the elevator, making him trip over his own feet.
"I'm sure you've been read your rights? Start exercising them and shut the hell up, asshole." Rossi said angrily and I smirked; I knew Melanie had stolen his line.
Darren gaped at Rossi for a moment before retorting,
"Shouldn't you be in a home somewhere, grandpa?"
"I believe you should shut up before I charge you with disturbing the peace as well as serial murder, attack on two federal agents, spousal abuse and breaking and entering, do you understand me?" Hotch said, his tone the angriest and sharpest I'd ever heard it.
"Say another word and I'll have my agents gag and bind you to the inside of an un-monitored cell in the basement," Hotch added. "Morgan and Reid, take him to interrogation."
With one last worried glance over my shoulder at Melanie, I took Darren by the elbow as Morgan took his other and we began escorting him down the corridor to the interrogation rooms.
The Daughter
I watched them go as JJ, Emily and Penelope began fussing over me, JJ flattening my hair as Penelope tilted my chin this way and that to get a better look at my bruising, Prentiss rolling up my shirt sleeves so they were no longer uneven.
"Melanie," My dad said in a clear voice which made the girls take a careful step back from me; their faces still coated in concern.
"Thank god you're alright," He gushed, wrapping me in his arms and kissing the top of my hair. I winced at the pain I felt in my ribs and he took a worried and desperate step back.
"You should get checked over at the hospital, you could have something broken." I shook my head adamantly.
"Dad really I'm fine. I just want to make sure we nail this bastard." I said in a weak voice and he nodded, sighing as he observed me a moment longer.
"I'll go call Beth, tell her you're alright." He turned on his heel and re-entered the bullpen while Rossi looked at me with a knowing expression.
"Alright, now tell us how you're really feeling." He said with his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
I shrugged and shook my head, looking down the hallway with tearful eyes.
"I'm just glad he's in handcuffs now." I said quietly.
"He can't hurt you anymore..." JJ said, reaching forward and rubbing my arm with a sympathetic smile.
I forced one on my own expression but it didn't mean it was heartfelt as I looked at her honest expression.
"Hey, Mel, we've got him, okay? He's not going to see the light of day again." Emily said carefully and I heaved a shaky breath.
"I feel like I've seen a ghost. And been attacked by one."
"Because you have," Penelope nodded with a smile. "Only you've survived and he hasn't. He's going away for a long time Mel because of you."
"No, because of Spencer," I gasped suddenly. "If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead," I said in a surprised tone, realisation finally dawning. "Darren had me... H-he... He a-attacked me with a vase and I knew I couldn't get away. If Spencer hadn't have come then, he would've killed me, I know he would've."
The four shared similar expressions of surprise, relief and worry.
And they were right.
Who knew what this meant. For any of us.
The Lover
"Did you know this drip is engaged to Melanie?" Darren was saying as Morgan and I handcuffed him to the table in one of the interrogation rooms.
Morgan looked over at me with an arched eyebrow and I blinked away from his eyes. Thankfully, Morgan decided to say nothing.
"I mean... Melanie, she's summit else, and we all know it. C'mon, you've been working with her for a long time now... So what, exactly, does she see in you I wonder..." He said as Morgan and I straightened and took one last look back at him.
"Do you have a lawyer?" I asked while looking at him dead in the eye.
"I don't need one sweet-cheeks." Instead of replying, Morgan and I left the room while he continued to talk about how attractive Melanie was.
"Reid, what the Hell was that?" Morgan asked the second the door closed behind him. "You're lying to him?" He asked and I rounded on him with an innocent expression.
"It... It was the first thing I could think of to use against him."
"You handled yourself pretty well besides the lies."
"Because I had no other choice, Morgan!"
"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on?" JJ asked as she, Emily and Melanie walked down the hall, Rossi and Hotch following not that far behind.
"Reid's told that asshole that he's still engaged to Melanie." Morgan said with an angry expression.
Hotch's eyes went wide and Melanie's cheeks took on the slightest of blushes.
"You what?" JJ asked in an openly shocked expression.
"Yeah, it was my idea," Melanie half-choked and everyone turned to her in complete surprise.
"When I received the flowers, I knew that he'd find me eventually, and one of the things we could use against him to give ourselves the upper-hand would be to make him think that Reid and I were still engaged. I thought that maybe it'd distract him and surprise him enough to put us in control, and it did."
I always admired how Melanie thought she could handle the team's anger better than I could.
I wasn't a twelve year old, I could take their anger and their questions just as well as she did, and the fact that after all this time she was still doing it; kind of pissed me off.
Would she ever let me deal with my own problems in my own way?
"You know how I feel about lying, Melanie," Hotch said in his strict tone and Melanie nodded her head with an apologetic expression.
"But in this case, it was essential in making sure the pair of you made an arrest and made it out of their alive with our Unsub, so," He gave her the smallest of smiles and bitterness almost strangled me.
"Well done. We just have to bear this in mind during interrogation."
Melanie looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
"You mean I'm not interrogating him?!" She asked in a couple of pitches higher than usual.
Hotch paused with his hand on the doorknob.
"You didn't really think I was going to let you back in the same room as that maniac after everything he's done to you and everything he's capable of?"
"Well dad, I'm the one he's most mad at, I'm the one he wants. I could use that to my advan-"
"No," Hotch said strictly, shaking his head. "The only people who are entering that room is either myself, Reid or Morgan. Nobody else Melanie, do you hear me?" He was no longer speaking as her father but as her boss and she knew it in that moment.
"Yes." She said reluctantly and he nodded his head once in finality.
The Daughter
Emily, JJ, Rossi, Caitlyn, Penelope and my team were either at home or their hotel rooms, sleeping and resting until the flight home and new cases tomorrow.
But my dad was sat in my office, writing up reports while Morgan and Spencer interrogated the arse out of Darren and I watched from the sidelines, wishing I could have five minutes alone with him in a room without a camera for one last time. Just to prove to him who was in charge.
My entire life I'd fought to prove that I'm the only one in control of my life. And ever since meeting Darren all those years ago; I'd struggled to get his face out of my head when battling with the amount of control I really had.
Because when it came down to it; for my entire life I was really the only one who cared enough to have the most control over my own life.
My grandparents were too old to dictate what I did, when and who with.
My parents were never around while I was growing up.
And my teachers and bosses knew I was too self-assured and mature to be told what to do.
So really, for my entire life yes I had battled with control. But only because I didn't know when to give it up. And sometimes that was worse than being taken by the hand and dragged through life.
I blinked back to the room before me where Morgan was luring over Darren, most likely thinking he could wear him down by being masculine and overpowering and dominant.
But Darren had worked in that line of work for most of his life. He knew every trick in the book and he would not crack under pressure. He never had.
Reid was sat opposite him, his hands cupped on the table and his eyes drilling right into Darren's unblinkingly; reminding me of my dad.
The entire time I was stood there, desperate to get in there and show them how it was done, show them how to really handle a guy like Darren.
But I couldn't, my dad was millimetres away from hauling me off the case, if he hadn't done so already.
But we needed a confession, and we needed to give it up. None of us had slept for what felt like days, and Darren was going to continue going until we'd all clawed our eyes out.
I began pacing; listening to the words being exchanged on the other side of the screen and shaking my head at how wrong they were doing things.
But then suddenly, the interrogation changed and I halted in the middle of the room, turning my head to the screen to see how the three men were reacting to Spencer's words.
"Why don't you just give it up, Darren?" Spencer was saying in his cruellest of tones.
He had risen to his feet, I noticed and was slowly walking back and forth in a cocky strut with his arms folded casually.
Morgan was standing back, just behind Darren's left shoulder, looking at Spencer with slightly narrowed eyes, as if asking him just what he was doing as he continued on in his smug and sly route.
"We know that I have won here," Spencer sighed in a bored tone as if he were about to yawn.
"All you've ever wanted is to have Melanie all to yourself; weak, defenceless, reliant on nobody but yourself. And yet here she is today; the strongest and most independent of us all, running her own unit here in New York City, the place where for you, everything fell apart.
"She's not looking over her shoulder all of the time, worrying if you're going to be there, because the truth is, you haven't entered her thoughts for a very long time.
"Instead, each night, she climbs into my bed and every morning I wake up, she's there, beside me. I know that I'm the only one who gets to look after her, see that sweet little smile she pulls when she first falls asleep and the way she sounds when she sleep talks.
"I'm the one who has that now, Darren. And you will never have that again."
By this point, Spencer was standing directly opposite Darren on the other side of the table and I could see how Darren was going to react before Spencer's last words had left his mouth.
He leapt to his feet, his face a mask of sheer rage and horror.
"Shut your face you prick, you know fuck all about me!" Darren's enraged voice hollered and Spencer didn't even flinch. He'd probably been expecting it too.
But instead, Morgan lunged, wrapping his massive arms around Darren before effortlessly pinning him back down in his seat yelling,
"Sit down, Jones!" He yelled. "Shut the hell up!"
Spencer slowly walked around the table as Morgan yelled this, a cocky smile on his angelic face and his arms still folded.
He didn't even seem bothered by the fact that Darren was staring up at him with the most animalistic of expressions; his breath pulling through his nose and teeth like an aggressive animal ready to kill.
"We're in charge of this, not you." Morgan was saying as Spencer came to a stop on Darren's left side.
Leaning real close so the recording probably wouldn't pick it up and so I had to strain really hard to hear, Spencer hissed,
"You lose. I win." Darren cracked his head to the side, attempting to head-butt Spencer.
But I'd taught him to expect this and Spencer turned in perfect timing, smiling as he walked around Darren slowly and smugly, his eyes quickly casting to the window where he knew I'd be watching.
And for a second his expression fell, and instead of looking smug, he looked apologetic and... I gasped as I slowly registered the heartbreak on his face.
It was gone just as quick as it had come and he continued walking toward the door, his arms folded like before and his smile just as smug as what it had been when he'd began controlling the interrogation.
"I haven't lost!" Darren yelled as soon as Spencer's hand dropped to the doorknob again.
"I never lose." He added adamantly.
"You've lost this time, Darren." Spencer said in the same bored tone and began twisting the knob to open the door, his back to Darren the entire time as Morgan watched slowly, clearly in a slight surprise of the sudden change in conversation.
"Well, then how did I get her back, eh?!" Darren said as Spencer began opening the door and he paused, the door slightly ajar. "I-I got her back, I made her see me again, she... I got her back."
"You didn't get her back, Darren. You took her. There's a difference." Spencer said with one glance at him over his shoulder.
"I still had her!" He yelled, growing more and more frantic as Spencer ignored him.
"Okay, okay, I took her, I did, but I still had her I... I still made her see me, and she knew it was me, all along she knew it was me."
"Doing the murders?" Morgan prodded while Spencer slowly closed the door, his back still to Darren.
But Darren was no longer interested in Morgan, knowing that he couldn't intimidate him.
Spencer was his only focus as Spencer had been the one to ignore him, to threaten him in a way nobody else really ever could.
"I bet you," Darren began in a desperate tone, licking his lips and staring right at Spencer as he began walking around the room slowly again, this time with his hands in his pockets as he refused to even glance in Darren's general direction.
"That as soon as she looked at those murders, she knew it was me. I bet you she knew I killed those people," A manic grin spread across his face. "I made sure she'd know it was me who killed those people."
"And what did you hope to achieve, by taking their lives you would somehow end up in Melanie's bed again?" Spencer scoffed.
"No," Darren sniffed, shaking his head and trying to move his hands; his cuffs clinking.
"N-no, all I ever wanted was to see her again. To see her in action, knowing she was stronger and more experienced and in charge now. All I wanted was to be able to see her again and know that it was because of me she was working so hard."
I frowned and my breath was stolen as I saw the genuine desperation on Darren's face.
"Do we have our confession yet?" My dad asked, barging inside the room. He halted when he saw my expression but I couldn't tare my eyes from the interrogation room.
"You took the innocent lives of so many women because you wanted to see Melanie again?" Spencer asked in a shocked tone; standing before Darren again, crossing his arms like before.
"No," Darren shook his head. "Because I wanted her to see me again."
I gasped and my dad heard it, the atmosphere suddenly changing from boss-like to father-like.
"Melanie," He said in a softer tone. "We have our confession," His voice was quiet as Morgan and Spencer left the interrogation room with an emotional Darren still handcuffed to the table.
"It's over." He added and I turned to him with glassy eyes.
"Those women died because of me, dad." I said in a broken voice; Spencer and Morgan hearing my words as they stood behind my dad in the hallway.
"They died because he is mentally ill and couldn't cope with his emotions and memories, Melanie." He disagreed.
"I..." I looked back at Darren, blinking the tears from my eyes rapidly.
"I have to get out of here." I added desperately, turning back to the three men who were staring at me as though they were looking at a ticking bomb.
"Of course," My dad nodded in relief. "I'll drive you home."
The Lover
That night in my hotel room, Darren's words repeated over and over to me like a track stuck on repeat.
As I packed my things for check-out I doubted I'd ever be able to forget the look on his face and the tone of his words.
I can't say I knew how he felt because there was no way I could take the lives of so many innocent people with ambitions and plans and prospects and potential.
But I could understand his feelings.
When Melanie left, I knew it was because of what we'd been through and how she had to cope with what had happened.
But for so long all I wanted was for her to consider me, to think of me and to think of how I was feeling and how I was coping.
I didn't doubt for a second that she thought she was doing right by me by leaving. But I wished she could see it through my eyes and realise that she wasn't.
I just wanted her to see me, again, and that is how I could completely sympathise with Darren.
*
I hoped that we'd just board the jet and take off for DC again without having to see Melanie, or her team, or her office.
But of course; with her father as our boss, not seeing her would just be awkward.
"I really cannot thank you all enough," Melanie said to all of us from the front of the jet, her hand on her dad's shoulder. "There is no way I would've been able to do even a fraction of this without all of your help and support."
"Awe, Mel," Penelope cooed. "Don't be silly, dolly, we're so happy that we could be there to help you." Caitlyn was sat on Penelope's other side, nodding her head enthusiastically.
I got to my feet to head to the back of the jet for some coffee; physically unable to look at Melanie for a moment longer.
I felt myself begin to hyperventilate and snatched the edge of the counter, willing myself to act normal.
"Spencer," Melanie's small voice prodded from my side and I looked down to see her innocent expression blinking up at me with the smallest of smiles.
The rest of the jet were deep in conversation; laughing and joking while Hotch told the pilot we were almost ready.
"I'm sorry," She said quietly. "For everything that's happened these past few days. I'm sorry for saying what I said, and I'm sorry you had to go through everything with Darren. I promise that from now on, you'll never have to go through anything like that again."
I looked away from her face, swallowing bile and swallowing it hard.
"I think, Melanie," I said in the calmest of tones I could manage. "It's probably best if we try to stay away," I gulped. "From each other, from now on." I slowly worked up the courage and looked down to see her expression.
She was smiling and nodding tearfully.
"It's probably better for everyone that way." She said in a mere whisper.
I nodded and looked away, everything feeling so awkward now.
When I looked back next to me, she was gone.
The Daughter
I sat hyperventilating and crying in my car at the airport for what felt like a lifetime, trying to get to grips with everything that had happened and everything that had been said.
Unfortunately, I was rudely interrupted with my phone ringing and I couldn't help but hope that it would be Spencer's caller ID I'd find on my screen.
When it wasn't I sniffed and rubbed beneath my eyes, clearing my throat so I wouldn't sound like a broken-hearted mess when I answered.
"Hotchner."
"Melanie," An old and weak voice greeted me desperately and my sadness turned into confusion. "It's your grandfather. Please- don't hang up."
"I've told you not to call." I said impatiently.
"I know... I know... Listen, Mellow please, listen to me. I'm not sure how much longer I'll have to wait on you finally giving me a chance, so I have to tell you now while I'm still strong enough. I'm sick. Proper sick this time love. I have Cancer and there's nothing they can do. I'm going to die, Mellow."